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U.S. Newspaper Program

To ensure that America's historical newspapers will be available for its citizens, the NEH conducted from 1982 to 2011 the United States Newspaper Program (USNP). The USNP was a cooperative national effort among the states and the federal government to locate, catalog, and preserve on microfilm newspapers published in the United States from the eighteenth century to the present. With NEH funding and technical assistance from the Library of Congress, all state projects were successfully completed.

U.S. Newspaper Program Participants

The USNP supported projects in each of the fifty states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Each project was conducted by a single organization within a state or territory, usually the state's largest newspaper repository. Project's staff inventoried holdings in public libraries, county courthouses, newspaper offices, historical museums, college and university libraries, archives, and historical societies. Catalog records were entered into a national database maintained by the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) and accessible worldwide through WorldCat. Microfilm copies of newspapers are generally available to researchers anywhere in the country through inter-library loan.

We have listed NEH awards in support of USNP projects. The dollar amount includes funds for planning, for implementation, and for the continuation of multi-stage projects. The list provides the approximate number of titles and newspaper pages that were cataloged and microfilmed.

Please note: e-mail addresses and URLs may not be current. Also, not all institutions maintain a Web site specifically for their USNP projects.

In addition to state projects, the Endowment funded the cataloging of newspapers at eight national repositories. Each of these libraries has extensive newspaper collections containing titles from most of the 50 states. The Library of Congress, with its own fiscal resources, also participated in the USNP as a national repository.

ALABAMA

The Alabama Coalition for the Preservation of Newspapers (CPAN) was responsible for the production of over 19.6 million pages of newspaper microfilm in the state. The Alabama Department of Archives and History serves as the repository for CPAN master microfilm produced using NEH USNP grant funds as well as the microfilm members continued to produce after the end of the project. The project received $571,563 in NEH support.

The project has microfilmed 100,000 pages of such papers as the Forty-Ninth Star and the Esquimaux, an 1866 newspaper for men laying Western Union's overland line. Included are handwritten newspapers from before the U.S. purchase of Alaska. The project received $650,190 in NEH support.

The Arizona project has microfilmed over 1,212,881 pages of newsprint from 57 towns in all 15 counties of the state. Titles preserved include the Williams News, the Arizona Record, the Copper Era, and El Sol. Holdings are searchable online by title, city, county, and subject. The project received $1,033,226 in NEH support.

Among the 15,500 newspapers cataloged and the 1.5 million pages microfilmed in California are the Alpine Argus and the O Lavrador Portuguez. The holdings date from 1846 and include publications in Spanish, Chinese, Armenian, and thirty-six other languages. The project received $6,967,377 in NEH support.

The Georgia Newspaper Project, in operation since 1953, microfilms 220 current newspapers on an ongoing basis and has filmed historic newspapers dating as early as the 18th century. GNP has filmed newspapers from each county in Georgia that has published a newspaper.The project received $557,550 in NEH support. A project by the Digital Library of Georgia is bringing a growing number of 19th and early 20th century titles to the Web.

Hawai'i has microfilmed 260,000 pages and cataloged 476 titles such as Windward Living and the Leeward Sun Press. The project, which includes papers in English, Hawaiian, and Portugese, received $72,402 in NEH support.

The Illinois Newspaper Project has cataloged more than 20,500 titles and microfilmed 2,019,419 pages of Illinois newspapers. The project was a collaborative effort between two offices, which received a total of $5,176,621 in NEH support.

More than 900,000 pages have been microfilmed by the Indiana Historical Society in Indiana. The Indiana Newspaper Project, a 25-year project to preserve historic newspapers, includes newspapers dating back to the 1830s and is searchable online. It received $542,272 in NEH support.

The Kansas Newspaper Project has microfilmed 1.6 million pages and cataloged 10,330 titles. The project received $72,976 in NEH support. Microfilmed newspapers are available through interlibrary loan. A database of titles that are available for loan can be searched at the Web site listed below.

The Kentucky Yeoman and the Blue Grass Blade, True American, and the Kentucke Gazette are among 4,750 titles cataloged and the more than 1.5 million pages microfilmed by the project. The University of Kentucky Libraries received $564,523 in NEH support.

Maine has microfilmed 356,000 pages of publications dating back to 1785 when Maine was part of Massachusetts. Titles include the Squirrel Island Squid and the Twin-Towns Screamer. The project received $435,984 in NEH support.

The Michigan Newspaper Project has cataloged 4,446 titles and microfilmed more than 900,000 pages of newsprint, including newspapers in more than seventeen languages. The project received $1,181,258 in NEH support.

The St. Louis Lightning Express, the Far West, and the Missouri Mule are among the 3,400 titles cataloged and 236,000 pages microfilmed. The project received $794,974 in NEH support. The University Libraries of the University of Missouri-Kansas City administered the Missouri State Newspaper Project. Collections of newspapers and the microfilm of the newspapers are available at the State Historical Society of Missouri.

More than one million pages have been microfilmed in New Hampshire, encompassing more than 1,644 titles published from 1756 to 1993. The project received $764,572 in NEH support. The library of Dartmouth College administered the New Hampshire State Newspaper Project. Collections of newspapers and the microfilm of the newspapers are available at the New Hampshire State Library.

The New-York Gazette, first published in 1725, is among the 4.27 million pages microfilmed. The project, which includes the original 1897 New York Sun article "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa-Claus," received $6,051,746 in NEH support.

North Carolina has microfilmed 3 million pages of newspapers such as the North Carolina Gazette, first published in 1751. The project, which includes papers from ninety-nine out of one hundred counties, received $1,334,095 in NEH support.

The project has microfilmed 3.3 million pages of papers, including the Farmers Ralroad, the Wyndmere Missile, and the Gladstone Rustler, a cowboy publication. The project received $205,809 in NEH support.

The first newspaper in the Royal colony of South Carolina appeared when Thomas Whitemarsh produced the South-Carolina Gazette in 1732. In the 19th century, ethnic newspapers served the German and Irish communities and today's Hispanic communities are reached by papers with Hispanic titles. The project has microfilmed 990,332 pages with $397,893 in NEH support.

The Tennessee Newspaper Project has cataloged 10,300 newspapers with publication dates from the 18th to the 21st century. Interesting titles include the Bolivar Palladium from the early 1800s, Carthage Casket from the mid 1800s, Mountain Ears from the 1930s, and the Gas Bag from the 1940s. The project received $1,477,872 in NEH support.

Among the 1,194,041 pages microfilmed are the Blooming Grove Rustler and the Evening News and Dinner Horn. The project, which includes the newspapers of Jewish, Czech, and German settlers, received $1,401,998 in NEH support.

The 267,000 pages of microfilmed holdings include Vermont's first newspaper, the Vermont Gazette, or Green Mountain Post Boy, which was printed in 1781 by Judah Padock Spooner and Timothy Green in Westminster on the historic Dresden Press (the first official printing press of the state of Vermont). Newspapers for Italian, French-Canadian, Slavic, and other immigrant groups working in the state's quarries, lumberyards, and textile factories are also represented. The project received $427,894 in NEH support.

The first Virginia Gazette, printed in 1736, and the Richmond Planet, an African American newspaper from the Reconstruction period, are among 477,000 pages microfilmed. The program received $3,417,158 in NEH support.

Among the 460,000 microfilmed pages and 1,180 cataloged titles are the Wheeling Intelligencer, the Point Pleasant Register, the Spirit of Jefferson-Farmers Advocate, and the Charleston Gazette. The project received $171,294 in NEH support.

The project includes Native American and African American newspapers, as well as underground newspapers from the 1960s. Two thousand titles have been cataloged. The project received $130,472 in NEH support.

The society has compiled a listing that provides information on whether a state has an online index of newspaper holdings. The listing includes links to the online indexes. The URL for the newspaper index listing is http://www.americanantiquarian.org/newspapers9.htm